


The Visitor

by pigeonking



Series: The Missing Doctor Adventures - Season Two [2]
Category: Doctor Who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 03:38:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11005176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pigeonking/pseuds/pigeonking
Summary: It's time for the second episode of the second season of The Missing Doctor Adventures. The Doctor isn't actually in this one, but this is where we get introduced to my own incarnation of the Master as portrayed by Idris Elba. There are also some surprise monsters which is why I've left them out of the tags to maintain the surprise.I suppose I could have done that with the Master too, but for long time fans it's gonna be pretty obvious who he is from the get go... Enjoy! :)





	The Visitor

It had been four months since Clover had announced her pregnancy to the Doctor and two weeks since he had left her in the care of the landlady, Ramona, at the _Allen’s Arms_ pub on Earth. He had gone off gallivanting in the TARDIS with his new companion Bex and left her here where she would be ‘safe’! So now here she was, four months pregnant, with a belly that suggested she was nearly full term, pulling pints for Ramona behind the bar with a little help from Ramona’s other bar maid, Aiko Saito.

Ramona regarded her with a stern, but kindly glare, shaking her head at the young woman’s stubbornness. She had lost count of the number of times that she had instructed Clover to just relax and take it easy, but the girl had insisted on pulling her weight and helping out around the pub. Aiko had been the same when she had first come here. She too had been heavily pregnant and had been dropped off by the Doctor and Clover after they had rescued her from some Yakuza enforcers in Japan. Those first few weeks Aiko had wanted to make herself useful too. Then three months later she had given birth to her beautiful son, Ishi, which is the Japanese word for Doctor, in honour of the man who had saved her. Clover had always supposed that if the baby had been a girl then maybe she would have been similarly honoured.

Now she was pulling a pint of one of the house ales for one of Ramona’s regulars, a handsome, but cheeky looking New Zealander named Forbes who was the ring leader of the _Game of Thrones_ book club that liked to meet in the pub every Thursday. Clover had come to notice the patterns of all the regulars over the four months that she had worked there.

Forbes would always be the first of his club to arrive and he would order himself a pint of the house ale of the day before retiring to the comfy chairs in the far corner by the fire place. The other regulars knew to keep that spot free on a Thursday evening. Forbes would be followed shortly by the other members of his club; two young girls, Kia and Amanda, who would always arrive five minutes after Forbes, in that order, every Thursday without fail. Kia would order a rum and coke while Amanda favoured a vodka and tonic with a twist of lemon.

Clover was just in the middle of cleaning a pint glass when the main door opened. She looked up with a ready smile of greeting; anticipating it would be Kia, but the smile faltered when a dark handsome black man with a neatly trimmed goatee, clad in black jeans and a matching polo-necked sweater, walked in instead. Clover’s smile fixed itself as the newcomer laid eyes upon her and rewarded her with a dazzling smile that revealed perfect white teeth – a stark contrast to the chocolate brown of his smooth skin. The man walked towards her, his dark eyes never leaving her. His gaze was intense, like looking up at a beautiful clear night sky. Clover was so captivated by this stranger that she did not see when Kia did enter a few moments later.

The man reached the bar.

“Help you… can I you… help you, sir?” Clover yelped and inwardly cursed herself for sounding like a giddy school girl. Pull yourself together, Clover, she chided herself inwardly. You’re carrying another man’s baby… you’re practically married for fuck sake!

“Are you Clover?” the man asked in a voice that sounded as alluring as his eyes looked.

“I might be.” Clover replied, suddenly feeling a little cautious. “How do you know who I am? Who are you?”

“The name’s Masterson, James Masterson.” The man told her. “I’m a friend of the Doctor’s.”

“A friend how?” Clover cocked her head to one side and regarded Masterson quizzically.

“I’m not really supposed to talk about it.” Masterson replied with a wink and a smile. “UNIT made me sign some sort of hush-hush document after the incident!”

“What incident?” Clover wondered. “How come I don’t know about this?”

“Probably because UNIT covered it up.” Masterson told her. “Hello, hush-hush, remember?” His eyes sparkled with amusement.

“Assuming that I believe you,” Clover continued. “What are you doing here?”

“The Doctor asked me to drop in and check up on you if I was ever in the area and low and behold, here I am!” Masterson stood back and spread his arms in a ‘Ta-da’ expression.

“I’m gonna have to quiz you some more before I’m convinced, but we don’t have to do it standing here.” Clover replied. She turned to Ramona. “Do you mind if I take a break to have a chat with the Doctor’s ‘friend’?”

Ramona broke into a grin. “Go on! Get out of here!” she scalded gently. “I’ve been wanting you to take a break all day!”

“Thanks!” Clover chuckled. Then she turned back to Masterson. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“I don’t suppose you’ve got any ginger beer?” Masterson asked.

“Coming right up!” Clover replied.

“I’ll get it!” Ramona insisted. “You just go and sit down. I’ll bring the drink to the table. Do you want anything?”

“I’ll have a ginger beer as well, please!” Clover smiled gratefully. She came out from behind the bar and led Masterson over to a clear table in the corner.

He pulled out a chair and allowed Clover to sit down before taking the seat opposite her.

“Right then, Mr Masterson…” Clover began.

Masterson smiled, like the serpent must have smiled at Eve in the Garden of Eden.

“Please, call me James!” he said. “I insist!”

“Alright, James.” Clover conceded. “Tell me more about this incident and your meeting with the Doctor.”

“Well,” Masterson began, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “Until recently I was working as the area manager at a plastics factory outside of London. I started to notice some pretty weird things going on. My boss was acting very strangely and he started ordering the workers to make things that we normally wouldn’t. You see we specialise in making dolls for little girls, but all of a sudden Mr Farrell was asking us to make inflatable chairs from black plastic and weirdest of all there was the daffodils.”

“Daffodils?” Clover repeated.

“Plastic daffodils.” Masterson nodded. “One night I was working late on some paperwork in my office when I heard the machines in the factory were still working…”

At this point Ramona came over and deposited their drinks in front of them.

“Sorry for the delay.” She said. “I had some other customers to serve before I could come over.”

“Thanks, Ramona!” Clover beamed.

Ramona smiled. She turned a suspicious eye upon Masterson as if to say ‘I’m watching you’ before returning to the bar.

“You were saying…” Clover prompted.

“Yeah, the machines were still working. I got up and investigated. What I saw was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed, I don’t mind admitting! The machines were being run by these faceless mannequins wearing grey overalls. There was something about them that just wasn’t human!”

“Autons!” Clover realised.

“Yes, that’s right.” Masterson nodded. “That’s what the Doctor called them! He’d obviously encountered them before. I’m guessing that you must have been with him?”

Clover nodded. “It was about two weeks ago relatively speaking; before he left me here!”

“Well, I managed to observe the Autons without being seen and after that I got out of there pretty sharpish, as you can imagine!” Masterson continued his story. “After that I called in UNIT and they came pretty quickly, with the Doctor in tow, and shut down the whole Auton operation. You should have seen it, Clover! There was a pitched battle between the UNIT soldiers and the Autons in the factory and at one point this huge monster with one eye and tentacles emerged from one of the vats of molten plastic. The Doctor blew up the monster with some sort of weird gadget that he looked like he’d just cobbled together from bits and pieces he’d found lying around between the cushions of his sofa!”

“Yep, that sounds like my Doctor alright!” Clover grinned and she felt a pang twitching at her heart strings as she realised just how much she missed him.

“Afterwards I got to talk to the Doctor, only he wouldn’t stop talking about you. I offered to pop in and check up on you and he was only too happy to let me and so here I am!” Masterson finished.

“Was Bex with him?” Clover wondered. She could not help, but feel a little jealous of Bex being with the Doctor. Of course she knew that Bex did not pose a threat to her relationship with the Doctor, but even so she was getting to spend more time with him than her at the moment.

“There was a girl with him, but I didn’t really get to chat to her.” Masterson replied dismissively.

“Who knew that we’d encounter the Nestenes again so soon!” Clover mused out loud.

“What do you mean?” Masterson asked.

“The last time we met them the Doctor trapped them on their home planet of Polymos.” Clover explained. “They must have found a way to escape!”

“Or maybe this lot weren’t on Polymos when the trap was sprung?” Masterson suggested.

“Maybe.” Clover agreed.

“So have I convinced you that I’m legit?” Masterson wondered.

“Well you know about UNIT and Autons. That does give you some credibility, but you could have got all that from the internet.” Clover told him.

“What is it going to take to convince you?” Masterson asked. “Why would I lie?”

“The Doctor told me that his enemies would be interested in our baby. How do I know you’re not one of them trying to get close to me and catch me off guard?” Clover pressed him.

“I guess you don’t.” Masterson conceded. “I hope I can earn your trust, Clover. The Doctor saved my life and if there is anything I can do to repay him then I will do it. If that means keeping an eye on you while he’s away then so be it.”

“I can look after myself, thank you very much.” Clover insisted. “Besides, what are you going to do? Visit the pub everyday?”

“You might remember me mentioning that I used to be an area manager, as in I’m not anymore. I could help your friend Ramona behind the bar, changing the barrels and that sort of thing.” Masterson suggested.

“I could ask Ramona if she’d be willing to let you help out, but I’m still not sure I should trust you.” Clover replied.

“Then wouldn’t you rather have me around where you can keep an eye on me?” Masterson smiled.

“Let me have a word with Ramona and we’ll see.” Clover conceded.

“I’ll wait here, shall I?” Masterson winked at her.

Clover just shook her head and got up from the table.

She approached the bar and caught Ramona’s attention.

“Can I speak to you in private for a moment?” she asked.

“Of course.” Ramona agreed. “Will you be alright on your own for a few minutes, Aiko?”

“Yes of course, go ahead!” the young Japanese woman beamed accommodatingly.

Clover followed Ramona out the back.

“So what’s the deal with our tall, dark and handsome stranger?” Ramona asked.

“He says that he’s a friend of the Doctor. More of an acquaintance from what he was telling me.” Clover answered. “Apparently he helped the Doctor and Bex out during a recent adventure they had involving UNIT and the Nestenes. The Doctor saved his life and apparently mentioned me quite a bit in casual conversation and so now James – that’s his name by the way, James Masterson – feels obliged to keep an eye on me as a favour for the Doctor while he’s away.”

“And the Doctor has actually asked him to do this?” Ramona wondered.

“Not as such. I think it was all James’s idea, but the Doctor knows about it, or so he says.” Clover replied.

“Sounds a bit iffy if you ask me!” Ramona opined.

“I agree, and I told him as much.” Clover said.

“What did he have to say about that?”

“Well he wants to come and work here so he can keep an eye on me and suggested that it would be a good way for us to keep an eye on him too if we didn’t completely trust him.” Clover told her. “What do you think?”

“He does have a point and maybe we could use him too!” Ramona mused thoughtfully.

“Use him how?” Clover asked.

“As a guard dog.” Ramona answered. “If he is who he says he is then it won’t hurt to have some muscle around. It’s not like you can do any spinning flying round house kicks at the moment is it!”

Clover raised a sardonic eyebrow and just smiled.

“And if he isn’t who he says he is and he’s after the baby then he isn’t going to want anyone else taking it from him. Either way he is going to protect you and it will give us time to think of a plan to deal with him if he does turn out to be dodgy.” Ramona finished.

“Sounds good to me!” Clover agreed.

“So it’s decided then?”

“Yes, I think so.” Clover answered. “Do you want to tell him the good news or shall I?”

 

Over the course of the next week or so Masterson became a regular fixture in the _Allen’s Arms_. Ramona definitely appreciated his help with all the heavy lifting tasks such as changing barrels and he was also a hit with the customers – especially the ladies. Clover found it amusing how some of the female clientele swooned over him. Masterson seemed to lap it up. He never seemed to lack a smile and his eyes always danced with amusement at the attention that he received.

Then one day Clover was surprised to hear the familiar sound of the TARDIS coming from outside of the pub. She was on her own behind the bar; Ramona was upstairs, Aiko was in the kitchen and Masterson was on a rare break. Clover had an overwhelming urge to run outside and greet the Doctor as he exited the TARDIS, but there was no one to cover the bar!

“Aiko!” she called into the kitchen. “I’m just running outside for some fresh air! Will you be okay for a few minutes?”

Aiko called back that she would be and so Clover wasted no time in exiting the bar area and running out of the pub.

She saw the comfortingly familiar square blue shape of the TARDIS standing at the corner of the road and she began to run towards it as quickly as her pregnant belly would allow her. Her key to the TARDIS door was already in her hand and her face glowed with pleasure at the prospect of seeing the father of her child again.

As soon as she reached the police box Clover slid her key into the lock and tried to turn it… to her astonishment the key would not turn.

Clover banged on the door with her fist.

“Doctor! Let me in!” she shouted. “It’s me, Clover!”

“Of course it’s you!” the Doctor’s unmistakably Scottish brogue sounded over the TARDIS intercom. “Don’t you think I know that?”

Clover’s smile faltered.

“Well aren’t you going to let me in?” she called back.

“Why would I want to do that?” the Doctor’s voice replied. “Look at you and your big fat belly! There’s no way that you can travel with me anymore looking like that!”

Clover couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She didn’t know whether to get mad or cry.

“But I’m not going to be pregnant forever! We discussed this! This is your child as much as it is mine!” she countered, choosing anger and thumping the TARDIS door.

“Time and Space is no place for a baby. You’re much better off staying here and raising the child a human. It’s better for us both. I just came back to say good bye. I won’t be coming back!” the Doctor told her.

“You can’t do this!” tears of anger and disbelief were welling in her eyes.

“Actually, I think you’ll find I can.” The Doctor’s voice replied. “Good bye, Clover. It was nice while it lasted.”

Clover heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS engines starting up and she quickly withdrew her key from the lock. As the TARDIS faded out of her life her heart broke and the tears finally came and she fell in a broken, sobbing heap upon the floor where the police box had once stood.

“Doctor!” she sobbed. “Come back!”

Clover had no idea how long she lay there sobbing her heart out before she felt strong arms encircle her upper body and lift her up gently and as effortlessly as if she were a babe in arms.

For a fleeting instant she thought maybe the Doctor had come back, but the thought occurred to her that she had not heard the TARDIS returning.

“It’s alright!” said a familiar voice soothingly. “I’ll get you home.”

And so Clover allowed herself to be guided back to the pub by James Masterson.

 

Ramona and Aiko greeted them with concerned looks as Masterson brought Clover, still weeping inconsolably into his chest, back into the pub.

“What happened?” Ramona asked and she came out from behind the bar in order to help Masterson guide Clover to an empty chair.

“I don’t know.” Masterson replied. “I found her outside like this.”

“Has she been attacked?” Aiko wondered.

“I don’t think so.” Masterson answered. “She hasn’t said anything since I found her.”

Ramona knelt in front of Clover and studied her closely. The young woman just sat there, silent but for the gentle sobs that wracked her body, her face red and puffy from crying and still wet with tears.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything physically wrong with her.” Ramona remarked.

“Don’t mind me.” Clover said quietly. “I’ve only had my heart ripped out and stomped on.”

“Are you saying that the Doctor had something to do with this?” Masterson replied incredulously, but Clover was not forthcoming with any further information.

Ramona stood up and looked at the young man.

“James, it’s a Thursday and we’ll be getting busy soon enough. Do you think you could take Clover upstairs and get her to lie down?”

Masterson nodded. “Of course.”

He lifted Clover from the chair, again without any apparent effort, and carried her off towards the stairs.

When Masterson returned to the bar after tucking Clover into bed, Ramona and Aiko were already busy with the usual Thursday crowd. He joined them just in time to serve Kia and Amanda from the _Game of Thrones_ book club. Both girls ordered their usual tipple and were very smiley and chatty with him.

“Tell Ramona, when you get a chance, that we love the new angel statue out the front!” Kia beamed happily; she was a petite and pretty, bubbly sort of girl which was accentuated by the cutesy pigtails that she wore in her shoulder length blonde hair.

“I’m sorry, but what angel statue are you talking about?” Masterson wondered. He hadn’t seen anything like that when he had been outside earlier.

“The one just outside!” Amanda answered. She was a little shyer than Kia with her long dark hair and cute smile, but even she was not immune to the charms of the new barman. “You must have seen it?”

“No, I haven’t.” Masterson assured her. “If you’ll both excuse me, I think I might go and take a look now.”

It was then that the lights in the pub started to flicker.

The bar was suddenly silent, the normal clamour of pub noise cowed by the mysterious flickering.

“What’s happening?” Aiko wondered.

“I’m not sure, but I have a nasty suspicion!” Masterson remarked grimly. He turned to his boss.

“Ramona, get these people out of here. Use the back exit.”

Ramona nodded her ascent. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to wait here and greet our guests!” he replied with a wolfish grin.

Ramona reached behind her and smashed the glass on the fire alarm. Immediately the air was filled with a strident ringing noise like the wailing of a thousand banshees. Ramona had to raise her voice to drill sergeant levels to be heard over the cacophony.

“Alright, everyone!” she bellowed. “Follow me! This is a fire drill, but we have to go out the back exit!”

As everyone in the pub wearily rose to their feet, some of them grumbling and muttering curses beneath their breath, the lights began flickering on and off again a lot more rapidly than before, as if they were providing a disco strobe light to accompany the banshee wail of the alarm. The people began to follow Ramona and Aiko in single file through the back exit out of the bar.

Masterson waited for the last of them to leave before he vaulted over the bar and casually pulled up a chair facing the front door. As he sat down he reached into his pockets, pulling out a torch in his left hand and another long, slender black tubular device in his right one.

The flickering of the lights became more and more erratic until, with an audible, angry sounding buzz, they went out completely, plunging the bar room into blackness!

Masterson flicked on the torch and the sudden burst of light illuminated the area just in front of him… revealing the snarling face of a stone angel just inches from where he was sitting, angelic wings folded behind its back and hands outstretched towards him, the fingers curled into claw like talons.

“Peekaboo, I see you!” Masterson grinned and he raised the other tube in his right hand.

With Masterson’s eyes fixed upon it the Weeping Angel was powerless to do anything.

Masterson depressed his thumb upon the button of his device and fired.

 

Ramona and her entourage of pub guests had, meanwhile, reached the back door to the building. The landlady reached out her hand and turned the handle to the door that would permit them access to the beer garden out the back. She pulled open the door and was immediately greeted by the serene figure of a stone angel blocking their exit. Its face wore a peaceful smile in comparison to the one that Masterson had encountered, but there was still something menacing about the way that the granite, sightless eyes stared back at her as if they were daring her to blink. At the moment its hands were at its sides, non-threatening.

Ramona slammed the door in its face.

“Not that way!” she declared.

As soon as the door was shut there came a thunderous hammering on the door.

“That’s not the angel doing that; is it?” Forbes asked nervously.  

And then, just as suddenly as the hammering had begun, it ceased rather abruptly. The handle of the door began to turn.

“Everybody stay behind me!” Ramona commanded. “And whatever you do, when that door opens, do not blink!”

The door did open… and James Masterson smiled back at them. Of the Weeping Angel there was no sign.

“It’s alright.” He declared cheerily. “False alarm. We can all go back into the bar now.”

There was a collective groan from all the assembled pub guests and they all turned round to shuffle back to the bar.

Ramona and Aiko looked at Masterson quizzically.

“I guess we must have scared them off?” he offered lamely.

And then Clover’s voice rang out from upstairs.

“Can someone turn off that fucking alarm??? I’m trying to sleep!!!”

 

The rest of the night passed without any further drama and Ramona locked the door of the pub as the last of the revellers departed. The lights had come back on after the abrupt departure of the Weeping Angels. Had they really scared them away like Masterson had said or was something else going on here? The man in question was down in the cellar at the moment changing over one of the barrels. Ramona resolved that she would speak with him about it when he came back up. In the meantime she went through to the back door that they had all intended to escape through earlier. She wanted to be sure that it was locked.

When Ramona got to the door she opened it, on a whim, and looked outside. Everything was clear. The beer garden was empty and there was no evidence that the Weeping Angel had ever been there. Ramona was about to close the door again and lock it when something caught her eye in the bushes beside the door. It looked like something made of stone had been hastily kicked under the bush in an effort to conceal it, but it hadn’t quite made it all the way under.

Ramona crossed to the mysterious object, hunched down and yanked it out from under the sparse foliage. What she found made every hair upon her body stand up on end and a chill ran through her as if a ghost had just decided to manifest in the exact spot where she was kneeling. In her hand she held what appeared to be an exact miniature replica of the angel that had blocked their exit from the door earlier. The only difference was that its face was now contorted into a snarl and the arms were outstretched and the hands balled into fists… as if they had been frozen in the act of banging on the door.

Ramona quickly stashed the mini angel back into the bush and stood back up again. She turned to go back inside and saw Masterson standing behind her with a smile upon his face. Ramona nearly jumped out of her skin…

“You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that!” she scalded gently. “Especially after the night that we’ve had.”

“I’m sorry.” Masterson apologised sincerely. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes. I just wanted to have one last check out here before locking up for the night.” She explained. “Do you really think we just scared them away?”

“I honestly don’t know.” Masterson conceded. “It’s the only explanation that I can think of.”

“Well we’d better get back inside then.” Ramona replied and she shooed him through the door. “In case they decide to come back!”

Ramona locked the door behind her, but she couldn’t help thinking that maybe there was something even more dangerous inside with them already.

 

Clover was awoken the next morning to breakfast in bed from their friendly neighbourhood barman.

“Thank you so much!” she offered a smile that her heart did not feel as she sat up and gratefully accepted the tray and its delicious contents. The smell of the bacon alone was enough to drive her senses wild with a hunger that she hadn’t realised she was feeling.

“I felt you could use it after the day you had yesterday.” Masterson smiled back at her as he sat down on the end of the bed. “You kind of skipped dinner so I imagine you must be starving!”

“I am!” Clover confirmed through a mouthful of bacon. “Even more than I realised.”

“Happy to help.” Masterson said simply.

“So what was all that drama about last night with the fire alarm?” Clover asked.

“I’ll make a deal with you.” Masterson replied. “I’ll tell you about that if you’ll tell me why I found you collapsed in a blubbering heap out on the street yesterday.”

Clover winced as if in pain at the reminder of her heart breaking encounter with the Doctor.

“Alright.” She agreed softly. “I’ll tell you. But you have to go first!”

Masterson obligingly told her everything about the Weeping Angel attack from the night before, though he left out his role in getting rid of the granite assassins.

“And they just left?” Clover asked incredulously. “Just like that?”

“Not exactly.” Masterson admitted. “But I want you to tell me your story before I finish mine.”

Clover looked into his earnest eyes and nodded her head in agreement. She told him everything about hearing the TARDIS, running outside to greet the Doctor, her key not turning in the lock, the Doctor’s cruel words over the intercom… everything! She was crying again by the time she had finished though not as hard as she had been the previous day. It was almost surprising to realise that she still had tears left to be shed as she felt as though she had cried them all yesterday before she fell asleep.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do now.” Clover confessed as she dried her eyes with a napkin from her breakfast tray. “I never believed that the Doctor could ever do something like this.”

“He isn’t human, Clover. You cannot judge his actions by those of a normal human being.” Masterson reminded her. “In his hearts he probably felt that he was doing you a favour.”

“He told you about the whole two hearts thing, huh?” Clover sniffed.

“Not exactly.” Masterson replied.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she wondered. “How else could you know he’s got more than one if he didn’t tell you?”

“I haven’t been entirely straight with you, Clover.” It was Masterson’s turn to confess. “I am a friend of the Doctor’s and that story I told you about the Nestenes is an adventure that we… shared, but that isn’t how I met him.”

“So when did you meet him?” Clover asked.

“The Doctor and I went to school together in the Academy on Gallifrey.” Masterson told her. “I am the Master and I am a Time Lord too.”

“So let me get this straight.” Clover said. She sat up straight in the bed and laid her tray to one side. “When you left Gallifrey and chose a name for yourself, you chose Master? Master of what exactly?”

“Master of my own destiny.” The Master replied with a smile. “Like the Doctor I left Gallifrey because I was bored and wanted to inject a bit of excitement into my life. Get out there and explore the universe instead of just ‘observing’ it.”

“So that means that you’ve got a TARDIS too, huh? With one of those chameleon circuits that can make it look like whatever you want it to look like?” Clover’s voice was neutral.

“That’s right.” The Master told her. “It’s hidden not far from here. I can take you to it and when the baby is born we can travel together. If the Doctor is too much of a coward to face up to his responsibilities then I am more than willing to step up.”

“I thought you were supposed to be his friend!” Clover reminded him.

“Doesn’t mean I have to defend him when he’s being a dickhead, now does it?” the Master replied.

“You want to know what I think?” Clover said; an edge was creeping into her voice that gave the Master cause for concern.

“Go on.” The Master nodded.

“I don’t think that was the Doctor’s TARDIS yesterday. I think it was yours, disguised to look like the Doctor’s.”

“But you heard the Doctor’s voice!” the Master protested.

“Voices can be mimicked. I’m willing to bet you’d be good at that sort of thing!” Clover countered.

“Oh you are, are you?” a hint of cold menace was beginning to taint the Master’s cool, calm demeanour.

“The Doctor isn’t just my friend. He’s my lover… the father of our freaking baby for fuck sake… Do you really think he wouldn’t have told me about his childhood on Gallifrey? About you? The Master! I know all about you!” Clover spat back at him.

“You think you know me?” the Master was on his feet now, hands balled into fists at his side as he shook with barely suppressed anger and violence. “You know nothing of what I am capable of!”

Clover began to scramble backwards away from him, across to the other side of the bed.

“Oh crap!” she muttered.

The Master began to stalk towards her.

“I was hoping that I could get you to come with me willingly, but it seems that I must force you instead. How unfortunate. I do so hate unnecessary violence.” He stopped then and chuckled to himself. “Oh who am I trying to kid. I love it!”

He pulled out the slender black tube from the night before and pointed it at Clover.

“This is my Tissue Compression Eliminator.” He told her.

“I know what it is.” Clover nodded grimly. Her back was against the wardrobe now. “I thought they had been banned centuries ago by the Shadow Proclamation.”

“You really think that I give two figs about what the Shadow Proclamation has to say?” the Master grinned. “Very good. You know what it is, so you must also know what it does.”

“That’s why I know you won’t use it.” Clover retorted defiantly. “Kill me with that thing and you’ll kill the baby too!”

“Oh I won’t kill you, but if you don’t come with me willingly then I’ll go downstairs and Ramona and Aiko will become nice little ornaments decorating the top of the bar.”

“If I wasn’t pregnant I would kick your fucking ass from here to fucking Timbuctoo!” Clover snarled.

“Ooh that does sound fun!” the Master chortled. “Do I take it then that you’ll come quietly?”

“I never come quietly. You can ask the Doctor that.” Clover replied with a grim smile.

“Enough of the filthy innuendo.” The Master scowled. “It’s time to go.”

He reached with his free hand into his other pocket and pulled out a small square, black device. The Master pressed a button and the air in the room was suddenly filled by the familiar howling and grinding of TARDIS engines. A blue police telephone box began to fade slowly into existence and for a moment Clover dared hope that the Doctor was coming to her rescue.

This hope was swiftly dashed when the Master took out a key and unlocked the door of the police box.

“Get inside!” he gestured towards the door with the TCE.

Clover reluctantly did as she was told.

The Master followed her inside and moments later the dematerialisation noise recommenced.

Ramona and Aiko burst into the room, having come to investigate after hearing the TARDIS’s arrival from downstairs. They were just in time to see the blue box disappear.

Clover was gone and there was nothing that they could do to bring her back!

**To Be Continued…**


End file.
